Strategic Management and Strategic Competitiveness Research Paper - 6

Strategic Management and Strategic Competitiveness - Research Paper ExampleIn the outlast few decades, globalization has become a crucial factor in business, as it affects business in different ways. In the case of Kmart, globalization has light-emitting diode to increased competition in the market. For instance, Target and Wal-Mart are new entrants in the market, having come after Kmart. These later replaced Kmart as the leading retailer. In addition, consumers today shed a wide range of options to choose from. With increased engineering that comes with globalization, consumers in America can now shop from other international companies, out of America. universe operational only in Guam, the United States, and Puerto Rica, Kmart has not stabilized and diversified enough to adapt to the competition that is globalization presents. In addition, the company has not adopt technology to the required global standards, therefore, cannot fully exploit new business opportunities globally ( Turner, 2003).Technology is an important factor in companies today, considering the benefits it presents. In Kmart, the factor of technology made it lag behind and lose it to Wal-Mart. This is because Kmart took a long period to adopt technology to the standards of its competitors. Wal-Mart, which is Kmarts main competitor, used technology since the early 1970,s as the key to its success. During these years, the company used computers in its stores, electronic cash registers, and used scanners to read UPC bar codes. Later, Wal-Mart started using virtual documents in placing orders and receiving shipping notices. Since Kmart did not set about the initiative of integrating technology in its business, this made Wal-Mart have all the competitive advantage, as advanced technology brought effectiveness in the business. However, during the end of eighties Kmart started to adopt advanced technology in its business process gradually. Nonetheless, the sluggish adoption of technology due to l ack of